Like Peter Frampton in 1976, the Tigers’ bats Came Alive! on Tuesday night with a whopping fifteen runs. Well, it was a noticeably more pitcher-dominated game on Wednesday night, and until the late innings it didn’t look like the Tigers would even get on the board. But with a two-out home run from a usual-suspect, and a game-winning hit from an unusual-suspect, the Tigers game from behind to get a 3-2 win and a series victory.
In yet another bullpen/opener day, Beau Brieske got the pseudostart for the Tigers, his third on the season. Both times he did it in July he got lit up and only lasted an inning, but on August 9 in San Francisco (speaking of Frampton, that’s where FCA was at least partly recorded) he shoved for three hitless innings with one walk and five whiffs. More of that, please!
Bryan Woo took the mound for the Mariners; he faced the Tigers on August 8 and had a fine start, pitching into the seventh, retiring the first twelve batters he faced, and ultimately surrendering three runs. Woo made the jump from Double-A to the majors last year and did decently well in 18 starts amongst the tall buildings. This year, in 13 starts so far for the Mariners (after a couple of injury-rehab tune-ups in the minors) he’s been pretty tough to beat. Coming into tonight he had an ERA of 2.27, a WHIP of 0.876, and he will usually reduce, or often eliminate, hard contact.
Brieske got into a little trouble in the second, with a pair of singles to start the frame. He induced a shallow flyout to centre, then gave way to Bryan Sammons — as was the plan all along — so he could face a lefty, Josh Rojas. Well, to quote Hannibal from the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together;” Sammons got a flyout and a lineout to end the inning, so there you go.
The Tigers got their first hits earlier than they did the previous time they faced Woo, with a pair of singles in the third that ultimately didn’t lead anywhere.
Meanwhile, Sammons continued nicely through the third and fourth, but he gave up a one-out double in the fifth to Dylan Moore who scored the game’s first run via a Jorge Polanco single.
Woo’s stuff was great all game — and, as has been the case all year, he didn’t walk anybody. Tiger hitters were much more subdued than they were a scant twenty-four hours before when everything was falling in, infield hits were plentiful, and the home runs flowed like wine.
Sammons finished the seventh, giving the Tigers 5 ⅔ innings and only giving up a single run. Will Vest took over in the eighth and a very weird rally ensued: a dropped third strike allowed Victor Robles to reach first, a groundout to first pushed Robles to second, and a comebacker to Vest, thrown to third, didn’t get Robles and put runners on the corners with one out.
There were some comedically long at-bats against Vest, with boatloads of foul balls — Cal Raleigh walked on the 11th pitch — and the bases were loaded for Julio Rodríguez, who blooped a single to left to push the Seattle lead to 2-0. Vest departed, Shelby Miller entered, and he got a strikeout and a lazy flyout to limit the damage.
Woo’s day was done after seven, but the tough Yimi García came in for the eighth and got two very quick outs. But then Matt Vierling hit a double that bounced over the fence, and Kerry Carpenter, who’d struck out three times on the night, pretended it was still Tuesday for a minute and smashed a fat fastball over the fence in right to tie the game at 2.
Really glad to have you back, Kerry. You have no idea.
So, ninth inning, tie game, new game. Jason Foley had a brisk 1-2-3 frame; the Tigers returned the favour and did the same against Andrés Muñoz, and we were Bonus Baseball-bound.
Ol’ Reliable, Tyler Holton, came in for the tenth with the speedy Robles on second and the 2-3-4 hitters coming up. What’d Holton do? Strikeout, strikeout, lazy flyout; Robles never left second. Beautiful.
The similarly fleet-of-foot Parker Meadows started the bottom of the tenth on second for the Tigers, and Collin Snyder replaced Muñoz in the Nasty Mariner Relief Pitcher Parade. Justyn-Henry Malloy worked a very patient walk to lead off, but Zach McKinstry bunted foul for a third strike. Akil Baddoo pinch-hit for Jake Rogers with one out, and look, I know, I KNOW, because I was thinking the same thing.
But baseball is a funny game sometimes.
Sometimes, a guy who you think shouldn’t succeed, does. Sometimes, the truly unexpected happens. Baddoo’s struggles this year have been well-documented, both here and in other places. Snyder’s ERA coming into tonight was just over 1. But Baddoo blasted a long fly ball over the centerfielder’s head, Meadows easily trotted home with the winning run, and that was the game.
It’s a bit of a lost season, sure — injuries and ineffectiveness have drained this team’s chances at a playoff run. But this was a fun one. As the late Warren Zevon opined, “Enjoy every sandwich.”
Box score: Tigers 3, Mariners 2
Notes and Stats
- Javier Báez was a late scratch from the lineup with “right hip discomfort.”
- In Tuesday night’s game, Jake Rogers became the second Tiger catcher ever to have three extra-base hits and 7 RBI in a game. The other? Bill Freehan. That’s some mighty fine company.
- Bill Freehan should be in the Hall of Fame. There, I said it.
- Weird statistical anomaly for Freehan, though: he never got hit by a pitch more than 11 times in a season… except for 1967 in which he was plunked 20 times and 1968 in which he wore 24 of ‘em for the team, leading the league both years. Hey, you gotta get on base any way you can, right?
- Seriously, though, Frampton Comes Alive! is a fantastic classic rock album. He was great in Humble Pie, even if Steve Mariott (RIP) was probably the more “serious” rock guy in that band, but Frampton’s live double album is just a party from start to finish, everyone’s invited, and it’s a heck of a good time.
- Happy 79th birthday to Steve Martin — stand-up comedian, actor, musician, writer, and all-around thoroughly-talented guy.